:D
Like many other people , I strongly disapprove of people who smoke very much . Everybody knows that smoking has a bad effect on our health . Many cancers have been caused by smoking . This demands us to have a law to cut down on the number of smokers . Everytime I have to sit a person smoking a lot , I feel annoyed a lot . So I think it's best for us to punish smokers for doing this . If so , maybe the number of smokers in the world can gradually reduce . Perhaps all of U also agree with me ?
Thank you and bi bi ! :wink

hey everybody!i agree that smoking is widely spread problem, and there should be taken some urgent measures against it...As far as i'm concerned, i think, that charging people for smoking isn't a very nice and what's important democratical way of solving this problem...From my point of view, it is every adult person's own choise...but what's important is to control teenagers(cause a lot of people start smoking in school, being influenced by their classmates..), and charge them for smoking...and also it shouldn't be allowed to smoke in social places, as smokers do harm not only to themselves, but to all people in their surrounding also.

I'd just like to add some information about the situation in Germany, just to let you know how things are handled in other countries, Germany in particular.
Smoking in Germany became more expense. From March 1 the price of a packet of cigarettes went up by 40 cents, as a new tax on tobacco went into effect and cigarette makers raised their profit margins. The tobacco tax will increase by 1.2 cents per cigarette on December 1 and again on September 1, 2005 to help finance the government's health reforms.
As a result, more smokers have been turning to rolling tobacco and cigars, which have been spared the higher taxation rates dumped on cigarettes over the past couple of years.

Sheff said: "At one point the price went so high that people resorted to smuggling."

I can second that and have read an interview with a spokesman for British American Tobacco. He said that increased tobacco taxes might blow smokers out of their clutch and onto the black market. Their concern is that the new taxes will not stop people smoking, but that they will turn to the black market and cheaper forms of tobacco.

Talking about 'cheaper' and buying cigarettes cheaper ...
one example can be found since many years here in Germany. Smokers who live near Poland, go there since many years, because they often pay less for cigarettes there and by doing that they also try to circumnavigate further tax hikes planned by the German government.

Yes, I agree that smokers should pay high taxes for cigarettes.
As all of us know that smoking is hamrful to health, and the harmful effects are not just appear to those smokers, but also the one who is next to them.
However ,the number of smokers is still increasing day by day, and the trend show that more and more teenagers become smokers too.Therefore, I hope that the increase in tax on cigarettes can cut down the number of smokers .

Smokers should pay high tax. First, smoking is not good for health. Otherwise smoker can affect passive smoker's health. It also causes environmental pollution. In addition, smoking is expensive. It waste of time and money.

smoker: a person who smokes cigarettes tax: a charge by the government added to the price of goods and services

I think taxation on cigarettes is a good way to reduce in market popualtion of smokers.
I think there are two approachs to reduce a mumber of smoker.
the first is that to ban the smoking in special area. this is so call supplier-craked policy. the other is to increase the price of cigarette. that is so call market-distroied policy.
I will give a vote to market-distroyed poicy

once I read in Veja magazina that Brazil spends more money with medical treament of ill smokers than receives in taxes from these industries....so, yes, I agree that the taxes should be higher....but not the employment ones....it would raise the number of unemployment in our country.

they are spending money to destroy their health, so let them pay for building something useful in their countries or saving people's lives, if the country decided use the amount of money they are going to pay, to finance health researches.

they are spending money to destroy their health, so let them pay for building something useful in their countries or saving people's lives, if the country decided use the amount of money they are going to pay, to finance health researches.

I don't know about the rest of the world but in my country cigerettes are heavily taxed by state and federal governments.

well, i'm not a smoker but i have to admit that i understand their point when they say all the taxes they are paying are being very important in other aspects of the society, this happens in portugal if you take a look to the money they are paying in taxes per year it's clearly that the government is using the money of the cigarettes to invest in other areas, so if they are smoking to pay some debts of the government instead of being me and all the people paying those debts, I guess I can handle with them, but this is just a point of view, i respect all the people that is against them and i also don't like to be eating or drinking something with someone throwing the smoke over me

Rui wrote:well, i'm not a smoker but i have to admit that i understand their point when they say all the taxes they are paying are being very important in other aspects of the society, this happens in portugal if you take a look to the money they are paying in taxes per year it's clearly that the government is using the money of the cigarettes to invest in other areas, so if they are smoking to pay some debts of the government instead of being me and all the people paying those debts, I guess I can handle with them, but this is just a point of view, i respect all the people that is against them and i also don't like to be eating or drinking something with someone throwing the smoke over me

Same thing applies though. If you are somewhere where smokers are allowed to smoke (and lets face it there aren't many places left) and you don't like it, then you should go somewhere else.

Let's face it there are probably more places for non-smokers now than smokers, so communities have to be fair about this.

I am going to once again play the devils advocate( meaning to take the opposte opinion) for the sake of smokers worldwide...without smoking can you imagine how much time would be on the hands of all the stressed out people who would then have nothing to do but act on those stressful things that cause them to smoke in the first palce...(I have been a smoker who was inclined to quit very often for the sake of health and then return for the sake of my health)

SURE some people would rather light up a cig and say screw it all than plot the murder of their spouse...if you get my drift,
if smoking calms the nerves would you take that away from that crazy fellow that you work with or rather see him coming to work one day with his machine gun...we need to question things baby...i would rather smell cigarettes all the time than have people being even more nuts around me than they
already are! (in los angeles anyway)
( Although I too might get a mask)

Abyway its a little fun with the what if....alternative...and besides
give people time to change...sure a massage would be better to relax with but is there a therapist outside every office building just waiting for us to come out so they can rub our sore necks? Not yet! so ease up youngsters...(i have to think) and give people time to change...also smoking is not an immoral act it is just a bad habit...perpitrated by cigarette industry...it is only becoming a moral wrong when you dont consider all the aspects of the dangers...your kids will like it if you give it up...and so
enough said....anybody?
OH AND ABOUT THE SPELLING THING>>>YOU ARE HERE TO HELP PEOPLE NOT TO CRITISIZE RIGHT? Can you write in their native language without mis-spelling???
probably not....I apologise for them, my friends! (in case they don't)

CityYoung wrote:The govrement must stop enter cigarettes in their country . After that no body will smoke

Good idea, then they can also tell us what to eat, how many times a day to go to the toilet and what colour underpants to wear.

Shazamm has the right attitude there!
we must all watch-out for what we ask for
especially with goverment intervention into our privacy!!!...you might get it honey!
a police state where they tell you what to do.... Martial law is no joke.
Nobody tells me how to smoke or not smoke and i choose to smoke one cigarette each night before i sleep...a very moderate girl, sometimes i will indulge more when i have big stress.
I dont mind if my friend smokes thirty cigs a day as long as they have the right to do it....I am not their commander I am their friend. but I do appreciate the thinking it is unhealthy...just no govt. rules on this!

thanks for that! although I dont really smoke anymore....quit recently again, I have long indulged in moderate smoking of the tobacco plants offerings...

people have been smoking for millennia....who's to say that a tiny bit of a bad thing is not alright for some...it seems to be the abuse that is the problem!
In fact I recently read something about a discovery of the health benefits of smoking tobacco....I will see if I can find the link... ...On second thought, NO... I wont because people will see it as permission to take it too far!

as for sex abuse and shopping....I prefer the sex, shopping is making my house very hard to keep clean since I am a sentimental sort of person, while sex was only a little bit messy and very much more enjoyable! Needless to say I couldn't keep all the lovers in a closet, (if only)
so they are much easier to deal with, than a shopping problem.

on sex and having a cigarette....
the moderation of cigarettes...you cant smoke too much if you keep your self busy having sex....only one (in between sessions) and another at the end is necessary

Keeping busy is the best way to stop smoking cigs.
Beat them out with healthy hobbys that you find more satisfying.